"[Greek: Basileu despota] (= the sun), [Greek: hilathi kai didou pasin hemin hugien katharan, prexis agathas kai biou telos esthlon]."-- The same idea is found in inscriptions in the Occident; as for instance in the peculiar epitaph of a sailor who died at Marseilles (Kaibel, _Inscr. gr._, XIV, 2462 = _Epigr._, 650): "[Greek: En de [te] tethneioisin homeguri [es] ge pelousin] [Greek: doiai; ton hetere men epichthonie pephoretai,] [Greek: he d' hetere teiressi sun aitherioisi choreuei,] [Greek: es straties eis eimi, lachon theon hegemonea]." It is the same term that Julian used (_Cesars_, p. 336 C) in speaking of Mithra, the guide of souls: [Greek: hegemona theon]. Cf. also _infra_, n. 66 and ch. VIII, n. 24. 64. The Babylonian origin of the doctrine that the souls returned to heaven by crossing the seven planetary spheres, has been maintained by Anz (_Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus_, 1897; cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I. pp. 38 ff., p. 309; Bousset, _Die Himmelsreise der Seele_ [_Archiv fuer Religionsw._, IV], 1901, pp. 160 ff.) and "Gnosis" in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopaedie_, col. 1520. It has since been denied by Reitzenstein (_Poimandres_, p. 79; cf. Kroll, _Berl. philol. Wochensch._, {254} 1906, p. 486). But although it may have been given its precise shape and been transformed by the Greeks and even by the Egyptians, I persist in believing that it is of Chaldean and religious origin. I heartily agree with the conclusions recently formulated by Bousset, (_Goettingische gelehrte Anzeigen_, 1905, pp. 707 ff.). We can go farther: Whatever roots it may have had in the speculations of ancient Greece (Aristoph., _Pax_, 832, Plato, _Tim._, 42B, cf. Haussoullier, _Rev. de philol._, 1909, pp. 1 ff.), whatever traces of it may be found in other nations (Dieterich, _Mithrasliturgie_, pp. 182 ff.; _Nekyia_, p. 24, note; Rohde, _Psyche_, II, p. 131, n. 3), the idea itself of the soul rising to the divine stars after death certainly developed under the influence of the sidereal worship of the Semites to a point where it dominated all other eschatological theories. The belief in the eternity of souls is the corollary to the belief in the eternity of the celestial gods (p. 129). We cannot give the history of this conception here, and we shall limit ourselves to brief observations. The first account of this system ever given at Rome is found in "Scipio's Dream" (c. 3); it probably dates back to Posidonius of Apamea (cf. Wendland, _Die hellenistisch-roemische Kultur_, p. 85, 166, n. 3, 168, n. 1), and is completely impregnated with mysticism and astrolatry. The same idea is found a little later in the astrologer Manilius (I, 758; IV, 404, etc.). The shape which it assumed in Josephus (_Bell. Judaic._, V, 1, 5, Sec. 47) is also much more religious than philosophical and is strikingly similar to a dogma of Islam (happiness in store for those dying in battle; a Syrian [_ibid._, Sec. 54] risks his life that his soul may go to heaven).